Red Hot Chili Peppers were mistaken for Metallica by customs officials at a Belarus airport.

Steve Jennings/WireImage

A trip through customs turned into a comedy of errors as the Red Hot Chili Peppers were mistaken for fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Metallica by Belarus customs officials.

According to Flea, with the Chili Peppers touring Europe in support of their new LP The Getaway, the band were at a Belarus airport between Kiev, Ukraine and Moscow, Russia gigs when they were called into the customs office. Once there, the Peppers were asked for their autographs… only they were handed Metallica photos and memorabilia to sign.

“We were called into customs officials office at an airport in Belarus and they asked us to sign a bunch of Metallica cd’s and photos,” Flea wrote on Instagram next to a photo of him signing pictures of Metallica. “We tried to explain to them that we weren’t Metallica but they insisted that we sign anyway. They had the power. Well I did play fight fire with [fire] with Metallica once. I love Metallica anyways but I’m no Robert Trujillo.”

In Flea’s photo, the bassist clearly writes his name in the white margins below press pictures of Metallica. It’s unclear why the Belarus customs officials thought the Chili Peppers were Metallica – the heavy metal legends only have one tour date this summer, and it’s in Minnesota – or why the officials had so much Metallica memorabilia on hand to begin with.